A number of European projects aim to fulfil the requirements of different European Commission (EC) Directives (EC Water Framework Directive, EC Mine Waste Directive, INSPIRE Directive, etc.) as well as the REACH Regulation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals). One example is the Geochemical Mapping of Agricultural and Grazing Land Soils Project (GEMAS) that for the first time provides fully harmonised data for element concentrations and soil properties known to influence the bioavailability and toxicity of the elements at the continental (European) scale, compliant with REACH. These data are accessible through the EGDI portal.

The geochemical projects are coordinated by the Geochemistry Expert Group under EuroGeoSurveys. This group works actively to provide high quality geochemical data of near-surface materials for multi-purpose use. To achieve this goal, systematic geochemical data for the whole of Europe are generated and published in the form of geochemical atlases, which are freely available to be used for (a) state of the environment reports, (b) mineral exploration, (c) agriculture, (d) forestry, (e) animal husbandry, (f) geomedicine or medical geology, (g) determination of natural background values for environmental risk assessment, etc.